January 26, 2013

For a while now I have been wondering what to blog about this month. I have thought through heavy topics such as "the culture of Christianity" all the way to light, heartfelt things, such as a bunch of pictures of the kids I work with each week. As time goes on, I am sure I will find time to blog about both of these things, and I am very sure you will see MANY pictures. However, as I spent many hours thinking about what I should write and trying to guess responses and analyze how my words will affect my readers, I decided to be very real with you all today.

You see, many times, we as people, try to put things in the best light possible. For example, when writing a report for a supervisor, we may try to highlight good things and only name a few down-points while trying to point out the solutions we have already thought up to resolve said "challenges". We have a tendency towards the positive when opening up our lives to people, and that is ok, because I choose to think we are trying to form relationship. No  matter what anyone's opinion is of all of this, I have decided to just tell you how my day REALLY was yesterday. After all, we all know from relationship experience, that there are good parts and challenging parts of every day. I am going to share with you a rather "challenging" part of my day yesterday.

It all started on a rainy Friday morning. I was so busy that I felt like I was spinning in uncontrollable circles from the moment I opened my eyes. We had a house guest staying with us and everything just seemed extra busy. I tried to get a little house work done (and believe me I only got a LITTLE done) before I rushed off to my teaching time for the day. I figured since it was Friday and I only had a small amount of time to put together a lesson plan for the day, that the Roma girls I teach would go over their multiplication tables (which we are currently trying to memorize) and then after that we would have some fun playing the card game "UNO" together.

So, I thought I had it all figured out as I left the house..... Hahahahahaha.... ya right.

When I arrived at the place where I teach, lunch was still being served to the children (YWAM runs a church and a feeding program with the children in the Roma area and I help teach some of the girls basic schooling three days a week after they finish their lunch). So, I stood in the front hallway of the building, watching and waiting for lunch to be finished. When the girls finished, I corralled them into our school room, only to realize Suada, our deaf girl, was missing although I had seen her at lunch. I left the room to investigate and found Suada leaving the premises, with her small (2 year old?) cousin in hand. I asked her why she was leaving and she said she had to take the boy  home. I said ok. I gave her 5 minutes to get back (she lives very close) so we could get started with our class as promptly as possible.

After much waiting, all the girls were in place and we started going over our times tables. To my surprise the girls did VERY good (even Suada who sometimes takes longer to learn because of her hearing disability). After we finished our multiplication practice for the day, I began to start explaining to them how to play UNO. This is when things got interesting. First of all, I had to threaten them to make sure they took proper care of the cards, because I had borrowed them and my desire was to return them in tact. Fair enough right? After that we played one game of UNO and I realized that Suada was not understanding at all. So I took up all the cards, shuffled and put the girls in teams of two to play together. This way I figured Suada could learn by seeing how the other girl was playing her cards. In the middle fo trying to divide them into teams, I get interrupted by a couple who was there visiting the YWAMers, just checking out the missions work that goes on there. This was absolutely cool with me, as I do not mind visitors at all, in fact I often ask people to come be a part of our class. However, this turned out to be a little different, because they just wanted to ask me a million questions. On a normal day this would have been fine, but I was in the middle of struggling to explain a game (you should try to explain a game like UNO to completely uneducated 11 year old girls in a language that is not your given tongue.) and this just made everything a lot more difficult than necessary. So, in the end, I had to, probably less than politely, ask the girls to be completely quite for a few minutes so I could at least hear the questions this poor couple was trying to ask about our class. After much ado, I got all their questions sorted out and they went on their way. I was happy to have had them and I am very happy that people are interested in the work that is being done in the Roma area. However, as I hope you can understand, this was not the best time. In the end it all worked out though...

SO.... we said goodbye to our guests and went on with our "team" UNO. From this Suada learned the idea of how the game goes. I was very happy with the turnout, EXCEPT for the fact that at one point two of my girls decided they were no longer a team and split their cards amongst themselves, thereafter being the best off two people in the game cause they had less cards than everyone else (if you have played UNO before you get this). So I had to explain that until we are done, they have to play as a team, otherwise its not fair. They giggled mischievously and we managed to carry on with our game.

Ten games later, the cleaning lady came in the room and told me that she was leaving and it would be just me and the kids left in the building. She asked me to come lock the gate behind her so that people couldn't get in. I agreed and reached in my pockets to retrieve my keys...

Suddenly, I realize I have no keys on my at all and I am rudely reminded that I left my keys at home, so my roomie could lock up because she couldn't seem to find her keys that morning. I am then very angry with myself because I KNOW I need those keys to lock up every day after school, and I have no idea why I so willingly and mindlessly left them behind that particular morning.

So, I then realize I have no keys to lock up and I reach into my pocket for my cell to call the head YWAMer to ask him to come back because I have forgotten my keys. Only then do I realize that I do no have my cell phone with me. So, I am left behind in a neighborhood where people wait for the house to be left empty so they can try and steal things and break in, AND I have no keys to lock up AND I have no phone to call for help...

Where was my mind that day?

So, I thought quickly and asked one of the children to run to the cleaning lady's house and ask her to call the lead YWAMer. A message was sent back to me that she does not have any money on her phone (Albania is a land of prepaid cell phones). Then she came into the school room and looked at me as if I had absolutely lost my mind and proceeded to rake me over the coals for being so mindless. I just listened and agreed before asking her to wait there while I ran home to get my keys. She kindly agreed to do so and I literally RAN the road home, got my keys and quickly bicycled back. Thankfully all turned out well, and I locked the door. However, I feel like school really ended in a bit of a mess and I left feeling extremely frustrated at myself and about the whole thing.

My life here might look awesome (and I am not denying that I love every minute of it), but things happen and I have days that are far from awesome just like anyone else. I suppose this has been just another day in the life of a missionary.

Thanks for reading....

PS- This month has been a particularly difficult one financially. Please prayerfully  consider a financial gift towards the work here. I promise not all days are as scatter brained as yesterday. Many of them are quite remarkable. =)

If you would like to give, click the PayPal link at the top of this page. Is is very simple to give online. If you need a tax deductible receipt for your giving, please mail any gifts to Julie Shelley c/o Metroplex Family church. Email me for specific mailing address.

Again, thanks for reading,

Julie

January 1, 2013: A Roma Christmas Party

2012 has come to pass and a new year is before us. I am so grateful for all the love, prayers and support shown to me by all the friends, family and supporters back at home and all around the world. Your thoughts, kind words, prayers, contributions and love have meant more to me than you could know and have helped the mission here continue to be possible.

2013 looks like it holds a lot of exciting new ministry opportunities, as well as continuing many of the ones already started. I am super excited to listen to God's leading and walk in the ways He is directing this year. More news will be coming on what's to come later in the year.

As many of you know, one of the works I do is teaching Roma gypsy girls basic schooling. On our last day of school before Christmas/New Years break, I decided to throw them a party to celebrate Christmas and Kristina's birthday (she's the one in the wheelchair) which is on Dec 31. You will see there are also two boys in the photos. They are cousins of Kristina and they played with us outside during our little celebration.

A big thank you to YWAM Elbasan and the Hunte family for letting me teach these girls, and a big thank you to my dear friend Kerri Nixon for helping organize the party, hanging with us and her photography. 

I will leave you with photos of our Christmas party. To all of you who contribute to and pray for the ongoing work here, remember, YOU helped make these moments and smiles possible. Thank you for all you do and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!